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the size of the factory. In the smaller establishments, less than a quarter of the hands are women; in the larger ones, nearly one-third. On the other hand, the number of children reported reaches a maximum in mills employing between one and two hundred hands, and then diminishes (pp. 26, 27). This seems to make it probable that most of the smaller mills employing children made either no returns, or inadequate

ones.

The percentage of women employed does not vary as much as would be expected between different localities. It is lowest in Litchfield County, and highest in Tolland County (pp. 22-25).

The percentage of child labor, on the other hand, varies greatly, rising as high as eleven per cent. in Windham County, and falling to less than three per cent. in New Haven County (pp. 22-25).

The employment of women reaches by far the largest proportion in the manufacture of wearing apparel, where they are nearly twice as numerous as the men; also in the silk mills, where about the same proportion holds good. In other textile mills, especially in the wool manufacture, the men outnumber the women.

The employment of children reaches the largest proportions in textile industry, which gives employment to nearly twice as many children as all other factory industries put together. The proportion of children, and in particular of young chil dren, is much largest in the cotton mills, where it reaches nearly twelve per cent. of the whole number employed. The general percentage of children in all textile industries is a little less than nine.

The greater part of the children employed in the production or textile goods and wearing apparel are engaged in tending machinery; in other lines of industry, such employment is the exception. Most establishments either in metal or in miscellaneous manufacture, represent children as engaged in cleaning and packing, in helping adult laborers, or simply in occasional odd jobs about the shop (p. 28). The result of this difference is, that the direct competition of child labor is hardly felt in

many of these lines, and the system is seen at its best instead of at its worst.

The employment of women in metal establishments is, for the most part, on lines similar to that of children — cleaning, finishing, assorting, or packing. There are, however, a great many establishments, especially in the brass manufacture, where the work of tending machinery is largely done by

The number employed in the administrative force of all lines of industry is also considerable (p. 29).

Returns giving the wages of about three thousand women in the city of New Haven, where they are perhaps employed in a greater variety of lines than anywhere else in the State, show an average weekly wage of a trifle over six dollars and a half. The lowest average wages are found in the manufacture of wearing apparel. Wages under six dollars are exceptional (pp. 98-100).

Returns concerning the employment of children in four mill towns in the eastern part of the State, show a scale of wages running down from about a dollar a day for hands over eighteen years of age, to thirty-five and forty cents for the youngest hands-in exceptional cases still lower. The average wages were higher, and the work a little steadier, in woolen mills than in cotton mills, for children of the same age.

HOURS OF LABOR.

Of 65,627 hands in the larger establishments of the State, 3,345, or about five per cent., were employed fifty-four hours or less; 14,647, or a little over twenty-two per cent., from fifty-five to fifty-nine hours; 37,033, or considerably over fifty-six per cent., were employed either fifty-nine and a half or sixty hours that is to say, ten hours a day; while the remainder, 10,602, or sixteen per cent., had an average working day of more than sixty hours (pp. 32, 33).

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Nearly all the cases of steady employment for more than ten hours daily in the factories of the State, were found in the textile industry, although there were many other establishments reporting more or less over-time. The longest hours re

ported in work of any kind were among the barbers — ninetytwo hours weekly. Several outdoor employments, with exceptionally long hours for instance, street car driversmade no report.

Some of the mineral industries, like lime burning, report very long, though usually somewhat irregular, hours. The paper mills run for exceedingly long hours, though with such relays that comparatively few of the hands work over ten hours daily. The regular working time of the bakers sometimes has been twelve hours a day, and this is considerably less than it was a few years ago.

On the other hand, the cigarmakers work but eight hours a day; a decided reduction in recent years, the last stage of which was accomplished in May of this year. This was the only trade where the attempt to secure an eight-hour day, which was to have been widely undertaken, was actually carried into effect. A number of other trades report slight reductions in recent years (p. 76).

The difference in time between the eastern and western counties is quite noticeable. In the three eastern counties, more than half of the hands reported are employed over ten hours daily. This is, of course, due to the large proportion of textile mills in this district. The largest percentages of short hours are reported from Middlesex, New Haven, and Fairfield counties (pp. 38-41).

The

The proportion of very short hours is greatest in the small establishments; otherwise, the difference is not particularly noticeable between establishments of different sizes. largest percentage of very long hours is found in establishments of medium size, say between 50 and 200 hands (pp. 40, 41).

Of establishments paying weekly, only one per cent. run over sixty hours a week; of those paying fortnightly, seven per cent. ; of those paying monthly, thirty-two per cent. Or, to put the same result in another form: of 20,812 hands employed less than ten hours a day, 6,279, or thirty per cent., were paid monthly; of 33,870 hands employed ten

hours a day, 12,349, or thirty-six and one-half per cent., were paid monthly; while of 10,465 hands employed regularly more than ten hours a day, 9,425, or fully ninety per cent., were paid monthly (pp. 36, 37).

Twelve per cent. of the men, twenty-two per cent. of the women, and thirty-four and a half per cent. of the children are employed more than ten hours daily. On the other hand, thirty per cent. of the men, twenty-eight per cent. of the women, and only eleven per cent. of the children, are employed less than ten hours daily.

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We thus reach the conclusion that monthly payments, long hours, and child labor go hand in hand. This fact is in one sense precisely what might have been expected; yet the results are so noticeable that they will bear repeating. First, practically none of the weekly payment mills have a normal working day of over ten hours. Second,-leaving out cases of fortnightly or mixed payment, a minority of men, a majority of women, and a two-thirds majority of children are paid monthly. Third, less than one-eighth of the men, but more than one-fifth of the women, and more than one-third of the children are employed regularly over ten hours a day. Fourth, the counties and industries which show the largest proportion of weekly payment show the smallest proportions of women and children employed, and vice versa.

LABOR LEGISLATION AND ITS ENFORCEMENT.

EXISTING CONDITIONS.

When child labor, long hours, and monthly payments are found together, it means that society is on a low industrial level. Any one of these things, by itself, creates a presumption to that effect; where they are all found, the presumption becomes overwhelming. The fact that they habitually go hand in hand and are found together, indicates that they are not due to accidental differences in business methods, but are at once an indication and a result of the character of the community where they prevail.

That the prevalence of child labor indicates a bad state of things, hardly needs proof. If a man sends his children to the mills at an early age, it means either that he cannot support his family himself, or that he cares more for a slight increase in his present earnings than for the future welfare of his family. It means that these children are growing up without the advantages of regular education. It means that there is great danger of physical deterioration, and little chance of intellectual improvement. It means an addition to the ranks of unskilled labor at present, at the expense of the higher development of those laborers in the future. It means that the community is more anxious to increase the quantity of its products than the quality of its citizens.

In regard to long hours, the case is similar, though perhaps not equally obvious. The good workman, as a rule, desires and needs the short hours far more than the bad workman. He is better able to make a good use of the leisure time; he is better able to work efficiently in shorter hours, to work hard for a moderate time instead of working inefficiently for a longer time. Down to a certain point, the nations who

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